Iveta Benesova eases past Gisela Dulko into the second round at
Internazionali BNL D’Italia
Former top twenty-five player Czech Iveta Benesova eased past Argentinean Gisela Dulko with a breadstick on Monday. She registered a 6-2, 6-1 win over the 26-year-old Argentinean to advance into the second round of the 2011 Internazionali
BNL D’Italia, a WTA Premier 5 event.
World number 58 Benesova downed the Argentinean veteran, ranked six places above her, on their eight meeting. After this victory at Foro Italico, the Czech extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 6-2 against Dulko.
Benesova hasn’t had much progress this season except for reaching the fourth round at Melbourne Grand Slam. Dulko on the other hand won the title at Acapulco and made a semi-final berth at Monterrey before entering this tournament.
28-year-old Czech displayed awe-inspiring skills in the opening set and held her opening serve plausibly. She then exchanged break in the fourth and fifth game and after which she went on fire to reel of last three games in a row.
Benesova saved two out of three breakpoints and converted three out of seven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to two.
She kept her momentum rolling into the final set and after the Argentine held her serve in the second game, Benesova unleashed blistering ground strokes to win the next five games in row. She saved the only breakpoint faced and
broke Dulko’s serve twice to clinch a breadstick.
The Argentinean showed dismal performance throughout the match. Regardless of clobbering less double faults and saving five breakpoints faced, she only converted one breakpoint opportunity to her advantage which wasn’t enough to
hold the Czech back.
Benesova will next face sixth seeded Australian Samantha Stosur who made a quarter-final berth at Dubai and reached semi-finals at Stuttgart before losing to eventual champion Julia Goerges. Stosur received a bye into the second
round here.
Spanish qualifier Anabel Medina Garrigues will be joining the Czech in the second round. The Spaniard converted five out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match with a 6-3, 6-2 score line.
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